❖ LABOR DAY with SEA SALT ❖

Labor Day was created by the labor movement in the late nineteenth century to celebrate the achievements of workers. It is considered the unofficial end of summer that became a federal holiday in 1894.
      Labour Day in Canada has been celebrated on the first Monday in September since the 1880s.
      From this historical archive, we remember some of the workers from the maritime industry, hard-working people who were caught on film, from an industry spread wide and deep throughout the Pacific Northwest. We start with a salt born in San Juan County;

      

A lifetime career of safe transport of
passengers & freight in the PNW.
Sam Barlow served on many vessels but
he is most remembered for his work on
the SS ROSALIE and the ROSARIO,
serving San Juan County where he
was born and raised.
Original photo from the S.P.H.S.©

Hail to the workers transporting the lumber.
Puget Sound Freight Lines 
On land and sea 
Original undated photo from S.P.H.S.©

George Leis
Keeper of the Canoes for 37 years!
at the time of this 1950 photograph at the UW.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

Capt. John Backland Jr., 1937.
Highly regarded Arctic trader aboard
schooner C.S. HOLMES.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

SHIPWRIGHT TOM PARKER
trying to save the
Schooner WAWONA,
Seattle, WA., May 1950.
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

Hauling gold ore into the Port of Seattle,
1957
Original photo from the archives of the S.P.H.S.©

Chet North
building a set of reefnet boats
at his shop in Deer Harbor,
Orcas Island, in the 1940s.
Photos kindly submitted by
Barbara Brown, Orcas Island.

Commercial fishermen pulling in salmon

on a reefnet boat near Squaw Bay.

Crew Jim Sesby (L) and gear owner 

Ed Hopkins (R) and top, 1983.

Shaw Island, WA.

 photocopies courtesy of the Hopkins family.

Bob Schoen and his freight boat
NORDLAND
228912
Built in Hadlock, WA., in 1929
for the Port of Port Townsend.
The required crew, one.
Bob Schoen found her in 1950 and brought her
to the San Juans where she carried
lumber, power-cables, toilets & sinks, people,
groceries, sheep to slaughter, logging equipment, 
gas, diesel, lube oil by the barrels, cattle.
Other later skippers were Dave Strickland,
Steve Barnes, Corkey North, and Al Jones.
Original photos courtesy of the Schoen family & Steve McKenna.
Click to enlarge.

Island Belt Cannery fill-in workers from the community
on a day when tenders delivered an overload of fish.
Bruns, Crawford, Fowler, Lee, and Stillman family
members have been identified in this photo with help
from the young boy in the front row, right, Lee Bruns.
Harney Channel, Shaw Island, c. 1920.

Riggers and sailmakers,
Rupert and Grenville Broom,
at the historic sail loft established by their father, George Broom.
For ships sailing in the war service, and later, they were 
manufacturing boatswain's chairs, pilot ladders, lifeboat sails, 
and debarkation nets of many kinds. 
Pier 8, Seattle, WA., 1943.
Original photo from the archives of S.P.H.S.©

Rev. Glion T. Benson
with his new 26' mission boat,
the ROYAL CROSS,
boating to work in the San Juan Islands.
Dated June 1957.
Original photo purchased for the archives of the S.P.H.S.©